The Big Question (Answered Two Years from Now)

IOSH, Britain's 40,000-member Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, has launched a new study to answer The Big Question: Does less regulation really benefit employers?

By way of background, the two-year study commissioned by IOSH and to be done by experts at the University of Nottingham will assess how the British government responded to a 2011 review calling for regulations to be simplified, guidance for businesses to be made clearer, and the concept of risk reconsidered. The study also "will map how the landscape continues to evolve for businesses and occupational safety and health (OSH) practitioners," according to IOSH.

With IOSH funding of about $312,000, Dr. Stavroula Leka, associate professor in Occupational Health Psychology at the university's Institute of Work, Health & Organisations, will lead the research team along with Dr. Aditya Jain, a lecturer in human resource management at the Nottingham University Business School.

The study is part of IOSH's "Health and safety in a changing world" research program. "The project supports IOSH's mission to champion a realistic approach to risk management, supporting employees and employers in minimizing the social and economic costs of death and injury at work," said the research program's director, Professor Robert Dingwall. "There is a serious concern that the flexibility created by a lighter touch from public agencies will actually be lost in an expansion of private rules from other interested parties like insurance companies. This project will help to tell us what is happening on the ground."

Founded in 1945, IOSH is the Chartered body in Britain for health and safety professionals. It claims to be the world's largest professional health and safety organization.